1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for transferring network access information of smart household appliances and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method that transmit the network access information of smart household appliances to a smart mobile terminal (e.g., a smart phone) without externally storing and leaking the network access information when performing a service for monitoring and controlling the power consumption of indoor smart household appliances (a washing machine, a refrigerator, etc. supporting communication, control, and monitoring functions) from a remote place using the smart mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Smart grid services for monitoring the power consumption of smart household appliances in a smart grid environment and controlling the operations of the smart household appliances have been implemented.
Customer users may use the service for monitoring and controlling the power consumption of indoor smart household appliances over the Internet even in an outdoor area, by using a smart mobile terminal such as a smart phone via servers provided by smart grid service providers.
That is, the server of a smart grid service provider functions to relay a service between the smart mobile terminal of a customer user and indoor smart household appliances. For this, the server of the smart grid service provider must previously detect pieces of network access information of smart household appliances.
Currently, upon implementing a service for monitoring and controlling the power consumption of current smart household appliances, the smart household appliances are configured to be capable of communicating with smart grid service providers through IP sharers in an indoor area. Here, the indoor IP sharers have the structure of being periodically allocated public Internet Protocol (IP) addresses enabling access to the Internet from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) using an IP address dynamic allocation (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol: DHCP) technique. That is, since this is a structure in which a network address enabling access to an indoor smart household appliance is frequently changed by the DHCP, the server of a smart grid service provider or a smart mobile terminal must be able to detect the changed network address in an outdoor area. In this structure, for communication between the smart grid service provider and the indoor smart household appliances, an IP sharer or a smart household appliance must periodically transfer network access information of the smart household appliance to the server of the smart grid service provider. Alternatively, the smart household appliance must primarily initiate communication using the preset address of the smart grid service provider server. That is, the smart mobile terminal of a customer user in an outdoor area can access the smart household appliance via the server and use related services only when the smart grid service provider server can know the network access information of the smart household appliance, which is frequently changed by the DHCP, using any method.
However, as an interest in the protection of personal information has increased, there is worry about an invasion of an individual's privacy for the service of monitoring and controlling the power consumption of indoor smart household appliances. For example, the network access information of an indoor smart household appliance can be misused as base data for the hacking of the smart household appliance in order for the insider of the smart grid service provider to illegally determine whether a specific customer user currently stays at home and to illegally control the smart household appliance. Further, when the smart grid service provider server is hacked by an external hacker, a large amount of network access information related to smart household appliances can be leaked and can be misused for an invasion of privacy and for criminal purposes.
Since conventional technologies are implemented such that, upon providing the above-described smart grid service, the network access information of indoor smart household appliances is stored in or open to the server of a third party, such as a smart grid service provider, the above-described security threat may occur.
As related preceding technology, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2013-0073464 discloses technology in which an energy supplier directly controls functionality provided by a smart household appliance within a user's allowable range.